Arsenal eye Argentinean ace as Wenger draws-up 3-man hit-list

According to the Telegraph, Mateo Musacchio is one of three central defenders on Arsenal’s short-list of targets as Arsene Wenger desperately tries to bring in another defender before the end of the month.

The boss knows he needs to strengthen our defensive options after seeing Gabriel join Per Mertesacker on the sidelines with a serious ankle injury last month but we’ve struggled to get a deal over the line.

Shkodran Mustafi is widely believed to be our main target but with Valencia demanding well over the £25m we are prepared to pay so Wenger has been forced to look at alternative targets.

The likes of Jonny Evans and Phil Jones have been linked in recent days, however, the Telegraph claim that Wenger has a three-man hit-list which includes Mateo Musacchio and Kostas Manolas.

Musacchio was strongly linked with a move to Arsenal at the start of the summer and potential deal worth around £12m was suggested at the time but it failed to come to fruition and the speculation went quiet.

However, it appears we’re back in for the Argentinean international and Musacchio is a powerful defender who is good in the air and has also acquired his EU status, so he would be an excellent signing if we could get a deal agreed with Villarreal.

The problem is, they’ve already sold Eric Bailly to Man Utd so they will be desperate to keep hold of the 25-year-old and they would be expected to demand a lot more than £12m this late in the window.

Another player under consideration is Manolas who has also been on Wenger’s radar for some time and the Telegraph claim that Wenger had a scout in the stands to watch him during Roma’s recent Champions League qualifier against Porto.

The Italian’s are understood to be desperate to keep hold of the Greek international but that could prove more difficult after they failed to qualify for the Champions League following their 3-0 defeat to Porto on Tuesday.

So it looks like Wenger is hoping to bring in one of Mustafi, Musacchio or Manolas [is he only after defenders who’s name begins with ‘M’?!] before the window slams shut and I’d personally be happy with any of the three.